Violet Cheung

Dr. Violet Cheung (ORCiD 0000-0003-2706-025X) is a professor in the department of psychology at the University of San Francisco. She holds a doctorate degree in psychology from UC Berkeley. Her research initially focused on public responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, examining how angry sentiments precipitated the U.S. to go to war. As the threat landscape evolves, her work has expanded to address contemporary challenges, including cyber insecurity, the migrant crisis, and foreign election influence campaigns on social media. She made notable contributions in a number of prominent journals, such as Political Psychology, Emotion, and Current Opinion in Psychology, as a first author.

She harnesses the transformative power of democratic leadership to facilitate knowledge discovery and application, to address pressing societal challenges. At the American Psychological Association, she is serving on its Policy and Planning board and on the board of Division 46, and was a past president of Division 48. At USF, she chaired/co-chaired, the honorary degree committee, the A&S curriculum committee, and the Psychology Department. She was recognized with grants, awards, and invited addresses from the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Foundation, reflecting her commitment to advancing the field and serving public interest.

• Anxiety, fear, and anger
• Sentiment analysis

• Threat response
• Public sentiment

• Board Member, Policy and Planning Board, American Psychological Association

• Board Member, Division 46, American Psychology Association
• Past-President, Division 48, American Psychological Association
• Board Member, Society for Terrorism Research
• Associate Editor, Behavioral Studies of Terrorism and Political Aggression Journal

• UC Berkeley, PhD in Psychology, 2007

• Invited Address, American Psychological Association Annual Convention, 2019

• Lynn Stuart Weiss Lecture Award, American Psychological Foundation, 2019

• Presentation Award, International Conference on Conflict and Aggression, 2013

• Young Investigator Award, XIXth world meeting, International Society for Research on Aggression, 2010

• Cheung-Blunden, V. (in-press). The Sway of Migrant Crisis and COVID-19 Pandemic on Voter Preference. Special Issue on Peace Psychology and Global Challenges. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.
• Cheung-Blunden, V., & Rich, G. (2023). Securitization of Migration and Hate Crimes Towards Immigrants and Refugees. In G. Rich, J. Kuriansky, U. Gielen, & D. Kaplin (Eds.), Psychosocial Experiences and Adjustment of Migrants: Coming to the USA. United Kingdom: Elsevier.
• Cheung-Blunden, V., Dechesne, M., Miodus, S., Dixit, S., & Hyun, R. (2022). Sources of anti-immigrant sentiments in Western democracies: A contextual approach. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 1-7.
• Cheung-Blunden, V., Sonar, K., Zhou, E., & Tan, C. (2021). Foreign disinformation operation’s affective engagement: Valence versus discrete emotions as drivers of tweet popularity. Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, 21(1), 980-997.

• Cheung-Blunden, V., Cropper, K., Panis, A. & Davis, K. (2018). Functional Divergence of Two Threat-induced Emotions: Fear-based versus Anxiety-based Cybersecurity Preferences. Emotion, 19(8), 1353-1354. 

• Cheung‐Blunden, V., & Ju, J. (2016). Anxiety as a barrier to information processing in the event of a cyberattack. Political Psychology, 37(3), 387–400. 

• Cheung-Blunden, V., & Blunden, B. (2008). The emotional construal of war: Anger, fear, and other negative emotions. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 14(2), 123–149.